Thrive is an open source evolution sim that has continued to impress me, and the latest release version 0.7.1 is nice and feature-filled.
Some nice improvements to the visuals in this release too, it's not just about new features. The world backgrounds are now much more dynamic with new effects like bubbles and distortions with various layers. The developers added a bloom effect, membranes are now fully 3D to make cells look more realistic, new ice chunks and more work to bring up the visual assets in the later stages of the game.
A major new game mechanic with oxygenation has been implemented too. With this you now initially spawn on a world without oxygen, but the world will evolve with you and oxygen will slowly be produced by various lifeforms and so you'll need to deal with the new systems revolving around that. As a whole the game is just a lot more dynamic now.
Direct Link
There's more to the update including a rework of the auto-evo reports, giving you a better understanding of what exactly is going on in the world. Plus there's now a Food Chain tab, so you can see the distribution of organisms across different levels of the chain.
Thrive has Native Linux support and is rated Steam Deck Playable. It's made with Godot Engine. See more about the update in the blog post.
See more from me